Polyalkylene glycol monomers are one of useful industrial raw materials which have been utilized in various industrial fields. Such polyalkylene glycol monomers are polymerized with carboxylic acid (salt) monomers to produce polymers which can be used in various applications. Polyalkylene glycol polymers prepared by using such polyalkylene glycol monomers as a raw material have been widely used in various applications as cement additives or thickeners having high basic performances, for example.
With respect to conventional polyalkylene glycol monomers, Japanese Patent No. 3293294 (pages 1 and 2) discloses an additive for cement using terminal alkyl ether of a polyalkylene glycol monomer. Such a cement additive contains, as a main component, a reaction product obtained by allowing a polymer (A) containing, as essential components, (i) maleic anhydride and (ii) a polyoxyalkylene derivative represented by the formula: R1O(A1O)m R2, R1 being a C2 to C5 alkenyl group (an alkenyl group containing 2 to 5 carbon atoms); A1O being a C2 to C4 oxyalkylene group including at least 50 mol % oxyethylene group; R2 being a C1 to C18 hydrocarbon group; and m being an integer of 1 to 200], to react with (B) a polyoxyalkylene derivative represented by the formula: R3O(C2H4O)x(A2O)y(C2H4O)zH, in the formula, R3 being a C1 to C22 hydrocarbon group or acyl group; A2O being an oxyalkylene group containing 3 or 4 carbon atoms; x being 0 or an integer of 1 to 20; y being an integer of 10 to 100; and z being 0 or an integer of 1 to 20; a relationship of y>=x+z>=1 being satisfied; and (C2H4O) and (A2O ) chains are a block adduct.
With respect to applications of cement additives, Japanese Kokai Publication No. 2002-121057 (pages 2, 21 to 28) discloses a cement admixture essentially containing a compound (A) represented by the formula (1): R1—O—(R2O )n-X—R3 (in the formula, X representing —CO— or —CH2CH2NHCO—); R1 representing a hydrocarbon group containing 1 to 30 carbon atoms; R2O being the same or different and representing an oxyalkylene group containing 2 to 18 carbon atoms; n representing an average molar number of oxyalkylene group added and being an integer of 1 to 300; and R3 representing at least one carboxyl group or sulfonyl group or group containing a salt thereof and a polyalkylene glycol monomer having an acid hydride-modified terminal.
Further, with respect to thickener applications, Japanese Patent No. 3615683 (pages 1 and 2) discloses a polymer having a structure unit derived from a polyalkylene glycol monomer having an alkyl ester or an alkyl amide at the terminal.
However, such a polymer has room for improvement in order to be preferably used in various applications by further studying the structure of the polyalkylene glycol monomer. Applications of such a polyalkylene glycol monomer or a polymer thereof have room for development by further studying the use in applications other than the cement additive and the thickener.
Performances of suppressing and preventing precipitation of surfactants or redeposition of soils which causes reduction in detergency, as well as performances of improving detergency of cleaning agents have been desired as performances required for cleaning agent builders. The precipitation of surfactants is generated if a linear alkylbenzene sulfonic acid (salt) (LAS) such as dodecylbenzenesulfonic acid, which is an anionic surfactant, is bonded to calcium ion or magnesium ion existing in water. Therefore, the problem of precipitation of surfactants is remarkable in the cases where cleaning is performed with water having a relatively high hardness (for example, referring to Louise Ho Tan Tai, “Formulating Detergents and Personal Care Products”, AOCS Press, pp. 53 to 54 (2000)).
However, it has been desired for the polymers to have more excellent performance of suppressing precipitation of surfactants (hereinafter, also referred to as simply “precipitation suppressing ability”) and/or performance of suppressing redeposition of soils (particularly, hydrophobic soils such as clay) (hereinafter, also referred to as simply “anti-soil redeposition ability”).